Electronic phone mail systems provide answering capabilities for incoming telephone calls. An incoming telephone call triggers a response mechanism in the electronic phone mail system that provides a prerecorded response to the caller and that provides an opportunity for the caller to leave a message for the phone mail user who is being called.
The prerecorded response typically identifies the person being called and provides other information to elicit the caller to leave a message. For example, the system generated response could say: "Hello. John Doe is not currently available. Please leave a message after you hear the tone." Alternatively, the user can record a more personal message in the user's own voice. For example, the response could say: "Hello. This is John Doe. I am not currently available. Please leave a message after you hear the tone."
Frequently, a user desires to provide more information to a caller. The message recorded by the user can provide limited information on the whereabouts of the user, such as: "Hello. This is John Doe. I am in the office today, but either on the telephone or away from my desk. Please leave a message after you hear the tone." However, with this type of response providing a caller with information on the user, effective phone mail use requires the user to update the phone mail response each day. Updating requires the user to dial in a series of codes or passwords. This process takes several minutes each day. Many users perceive this as a bother and provide callers only with identifying information. Furthermore, prior art telephone response mechanisms do not inform the caller when the user will be available.
Therefore, what is needed is a phone mail response mechanism that would provide useful information to a caller, and that would automatically update this information without the user.